Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Frugal Living => Topic started by: David. on December 06, 2007, 16:59
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When I was young we were so poor that ...........
My father had to have, in addition to relying on working overtime, up to 3 additional part time evening/weekend jobs (until we were old enough for my mother to also work).
One Christmas, when there was no overtime available where my father worked for some time, we faced the prospect of no tree and no Christmas dinner.
My father and I went out and dragged an dead branch out of a hedge and painted in with whatever leftover paints we had, and that was our Christmas tree.
On Christmas Eve, the 2 tickets he bought for the works raffle both won - 2 chickens for Christmas! (not a vegetarian then).
And it's what I always remember as our best Christmas, and I can't even remember if we got any presents.
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You think you were poor - we had to eat our dinner off the floor cos we couldn't afford a table, and our toys were new cardboard boxes.
JOKING :lol:
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You were lucky
All we got was a lump of coal......
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Don't know, if that really suits in here, cause thankfully we weren't poor. But the best part nearly every year is, when we try to make the Christmas tree more even by rearranging the branches.. last year my sister and me spent three hours, poking with knives/ nails/ handdriven drill to get them in the right place only for my mum to tell us, that it looked worse then beforehand
But our Christmas never was mainly about presents and the dinner, it was game playing, watching old family films on 8 mm.. even when we were young we would forget about the presents cause it was so nice with the atmosphere
Bell
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is that a real or artificial tree? :shock:
i always remember my dad trying to get our one to stand up straight (always a real tree, which we would put in a big bucket of coal), and then fiddling for hours with all the lights!!
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When I was young we were so poor that ...........
My father had to have, in addition to relying on working overtime, up to 3 additional part time evening/weekend jobs (until we were old enough for my mother to also work).
One Christmas, when there was no overtime available where my father worked for some time, we faced the prospect of no tree and no Christmas dinner.
My father and I went out and dragged an dead branch out of a hedge and painted in with whatever leftover paints we had, and that was our Christmas tree.
On Christmas Eve, the 2 tickets he bought for the works raffle both won - 2 chickens for Christmas! (not a vegetarian then).
And it's what I always remember as our best Christmas, and I can't even remember if we got any presents.
I remember our tree having a nice pile of presents under it - but there were 7 of us, so by the time they were divided there wasn't much to go round.
Our children just have far too much stuff. This year we're going to put presents under the tree as time goes on so we don't have too MUCH by the end of it.
But we never thought Christmas was bad, or that we didn't have enough. It was all about decorations, sweeties and singing. Only now do I look back at the joy a pad of paper and some pencils would bring!
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All we got was a lump of coal......
That's an expensive present these days (just been to the coal yard - and not for my daughter's present).
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For the past 4 years I've been cutting a big, nicely shaped branch from my garden and using it instead of a tree. I put all the lights and trimmings on it and it looks lovely and takes up less space than a traditional tree. Is it just me who does this? Am I being mean? Help!!
By the way – coal around our way is £10.50 for a bag.
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we was so poor we collected coal of the rail lines .dad shot sumat .grandad had a packet mints and we sat on his chair arms and waited till he breathed out so we could breath in n share his minty breath.. mam bought orange peels from the market n burned em to make it smell like we had loads fruit in our house n the nieghbours always sniffed at the letter box . :lol: :lol: :lol:
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You were lucky - we couldn't afford a letterbox
:lol:
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You were lucky - we couldn't afford a letterbox
:lol:
:cry: You have to have a door to be able to even think about a letterbox :cry:
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You were lucky - we couldn't afford a letterbox
:lol:
:cry: You have to have a door to be able to even think about a letterbox :cry:
Well .... everyone has been alluding to it so it is high time it was posted .... GqNGhcdtMbc
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And you try and tell the young people that today, and they won't believe you. :wink:
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we was so poor we collected coal of the rail lines
We snatched the coal the train drivers threw beside the tracks to collect later, whilst we picked blackberries beside the railway line.
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When I was young we were so poor that....Part 2 - my wife's childhood:
My wife's father & uncle lost their (rented)farm when it became unviable and my wife (to be) was only a few years old and obviously had never had a summer holiday.
In subsequent years, she went with on holiday with her father and sister to her Uncle's farm (hard times there also) in summer, when the milker went on holiday.
The girls stayed in a tent next to the chicken sheds, and their father only got board & lodging. Their mother had to stay back home and go to work.
Best holidays my wife ever had!
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I used to work with a lot of people from the East End (all moved to Essex now) and they used to go fruit picking in the summer as children - their parents earned money and kids had a holiday at the same time.
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Schools in Scotland still close for a week in October for the "Tattie Holidays" but no-one harvests tatties with gangs of schoolkids these days. All mechanised.
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Sounds like hard work all that digging... ours would have been fruit & veg I suppose. We have gangs of poorly paid migrant workers now instead while local holidaymakers fly to spain / croatia.
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when i was in school towards the summer there'd always be lads missing because they were helping with the turf;
also lads bunking off to work as caddies on the golf course.
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A true story from a regular customer of mine... when he was a kid just after the war his family were very poor. One Christmas his dad couldn't afford to buy him a present, so... seeing as he had just cut down a tree in the garden, he decided to make him a present instead. He made a railway engine, everything made from the tree trunk and the wheels cut from the branches. He painted it up and made it real grand. Don came down on Christmas morning, fully knowing that his parents had no money, yet hoping (like we all did) that a miracle meant that a new bike could be there as if they were from santa. His dad gave him his breakfast, and full of pride he led him out into the back porch, where his new engine was stood waiting for him. Holding back a tear in his eye he smiled and thanked his dad for the present, which he knew was his best effort, and promised himself that HIS kids would always have HIS best efforts to make sure THEIR Christmas was as good as he could possibly make it.
Anyway, according to Don, on boxing day there was nothing left to burn, and the engine went on the fire. True story that. Lets think ourselves lucky we have what we have, and remember those less fortunate...
(Lump in my throat now, where's my whisky??!.... )
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Is now a good time to say that I had a very privaleged childhood, full of warm and fully centrally heated housing, indoor bathrooms, warm soft towels, 3 square meals a day plus supper, santa never left coal (coz I was a good little girl) and mummy and daddy always gave us at least one present each (not to mention the ones from aunties, grandparents and family friends). A lot of them were homemade but i always especially loved the auntie that every single year gave us a selection box, the fun we had with those (and not just the eating of the chocolate!). Isn't nostlagia great?!
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Isn't nostlagia great?!
Yes, but it's not what it used to be. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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When my dad was a child (one of 5 ) he lost his dad in the first world war and his mum bought old meat for the kids that was fly blown. They soaked it in vinegar overnight to kill the maggots and cooked it as normal. Can you imaginr the health and safety now.
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Oh for those halcyon days of England long ago
indeed :wink: :)
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I d still swop lots of the life we have today for that of years ago. :(
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I d still swop lots of the life we have today for that of years ago. :(
what? maggoty meat? :x
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You can learn lessons from the past. And today is almost gone. All we have therefore, is the future..... So enjoy and make the best of it :D
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I d still swop lots of the life we have today for that of years ago. :(
what? maggoty meat? :x
I didnt say I would swap that part of it. But it makes me so sad and angry with how a lot of life is today not just in England but worldwide. When ppl say they are poor today they just have a different sliding scale of poverty. There wasnt any safety net of income support then but look how its abused now.
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When I was a child, we didn;t have much money, but my Mum went to work as well as dad, and she always bought us as much as she could, although I was always jealous of the kids who had more. But we were always warm, and had full bellies.
My Brian hates Christmas, but I keep trying to tell him its not just about the shops taking all your money.
My bro and SIL don't have much either, but bro spends weeks and weeks before Chistmas buying little things for my SIL. It might be something that cost him a £1 or it might have cost him 10p. But he wraps them all up separately so she has lots of parcels to open and he always buys her an advent calendar with chocs in. She still loves them, even though she will be 59 on Christmas Eve!
When my Nici and her family come up this coming weekend, I want to give them a slightly different Christmas. Nici does really well for her family, probably spoiling them too much bless her!! But the mince pies will be homemade and not only will the sausage rolls be homemade, but so will the sausagemeat! And the bread rolls and the pudding and cakes etc. I'm really looking forward to it, but then I keep saying that, sorry!!!!!
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oh grannie hope you all enjoy your early Christmas!! it sounds lovely :D
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People percieve poverty in diferent ways. My family all consider me badly off because I never have actual money. They refer to me as "Poor Margaret" - I own my own house, a horse and loads of "stuff"! At one point I had 5 horses, chickens a half dozen ewes and a large field - it always amused me that they called me poor cause I wear scruffy stuff instead of chavvy designer gear.
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i agree esme; apart from abject poverty it's a bit of a relative thing.
peter and i are probably the 'poor' ones in my family but we own our house outright (no mortgage) and have approx €20,000 in the bank.
but we don't have high flying jobs or go away to far flung sunny places for holidays and we've had the same car since 2002 (which we bought brand new and paid for in cash, but it's 'only' a ford ka...)
we live comfortably within our means, and are happy! :D
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peter and i are probably the 'poor' ones in my family but we own our house outright (no mortgage) and have approx €20,000 in the bank.
Lend us a fiver then :twisted:
I was brought up in a "middle classe" Jewish family (I hate the class thing though) dad has his own business until the 1970's when it was forced to close due to Far East imports, but they never had a mortgage, their parents bought their first house for them outright. I didn't realise we were "well off" until a girl from school came to dinner (see in Leeds you're posh if you call it dinner not tea :lol: ) and were having a normal meal for us, home made soup, meat (probably beef I can't remember), jacket potatoes, a green veg and a large bowl of salad (which mum put on the table every day and we picked at it after dinner, she didn't do puddings very often), this girl thought my mum had made a feast and didn't stop going on about it for ages, she said she'd never seen such food - and on a weekday to boot!
I then lived in a council flat for 20 years until I bought my little house, and now consider my self working class, struggling to make ends meet but happy with no aspirations to climb up the social ladder again thank you! Somebody asked me 5 years ago what I wanted - and I said to earn less money, this sounds bizarre but I was in a well paid but horrid job, and I knew as soon as I got the mortgage sorted out etc I could leave and earn less money and work less hours, which I've done!
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... and have approx €20,000 in the bank.
Erk! I hope you don't bank with my employers! every time you rang the call centre for a balance they'd mark us down if we didn't offer to invest it for you or try to sell you a loan or insurance! :evil:
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when we went into the bank to sort out credit cards, the lady behind the counter said we'd ''too much'' money in our account (it was €30,000 then - it's all going on building work on our house) :lol:
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I can sell you a loan to help you with that! LOL! :lol: Kidding!
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:D she did persuade us to do one of those high interest savings thingies (where we put in €500 a month into this special account and can't touch it for a few years) do they get commission on persuading you to do such things?
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well we don't get commission but we are targetted and if we don't hit our targets then we are put on a 'plan'. If we don't bring our targets up then we get a P45. :evil:
Sorry, I have hijacked the post abit so....
We were so poor when we were kids that Christmas actually meant something to us; not like today when kids just expect to get something (edit: LOTS of things) (edit: edit: LOTS of EXPENSIVE things) just for being around instead of as a reward for being good and kind :evil: :evil:
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We have a relatively good disposable income, but I'm really just mean and miserly and hate spending more money than I need to.
We have far too much stuff at home, but also far too many hobbies. We all play different instruments, I've got the garden stuff, he's got art, and dds have an obsession with small girly ornaments and anything that says pet / kitten / puppy / pocket / tiny or is lilac or pink.
So as with most people, by the end of the month it's all disappeared.
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When my mother was 12 (in 1925), her mother died suddenly on Christmas day at the age of 32. Her father was a miser, although he did have money, and sent the doll that my mother had been given for Christmas back to the shop. It was the only present she had ever been given for Christmas and her mother had saved secretly for it. Mom didn't have a pair of shoes until she was 15, when she was able to buy some herself.
On a different note, when my step kids were young, we let them decorate the Christmas tree by themselves one year. It ended up covered with plastic toy soldiers and dolls, with a Barbie as the fairy. It looked great too!
We are also the 'poorest' in our family, although we are comfortable (we haven't always been). But that is because others in my family are quite well off. I have no problem with that as they have worked for it and they are not 'in your face' about it. They also happen to be really nice people.
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Mom didn't have a pair of shoes until she was 15, when she was able to buy some herself.
My mother (my grandfather was a docker in the East End) used to tell me about children would wear shoes to school, then their mother would take them back home for some one else to use.
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Lynne that story about your mum's really tragic. But I still know women who have an allowance and save up for nice things for their kids without their husbands knowing. :(
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i agree with sweetn, the story about your mother is really heart-breaking lynne.
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We didn't have much either when I was young, but we always had food and decent clothes even if they were hand-me-downs from neighbours. What I most hated was back at school after Christmas and some wise-ass teacher had every student stand and tell what they got for Christmas. My mouth dropped at how much other kids got. I was too embarassed to tell of the single gift my dad chose for me that year - a big stuffed clown bear - when I was 14!
Now the irony is that most of those well-off school friends are either dead or are on 2nd or 3rd marriages. Last time I looked I was still alive, and still happy in marriage #1.
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:shock: :shock: You married the big stuffed clown bear :!:
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a clown bear sounds really creepy...
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I thought so too, Rosemary. When I snuck a look in my parents gift hiding spot, I thought it was for my younger sisters. My dad and I were always at odds so I guess he figured this would be the ultimate insult. And it was. I lied and told friends I'd simply received books and music.
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We must have been fairly poor when I was a kid,but no one ever told us. Chistmas was the most wonderful time. We had great food. Cakes all home cooked and started in october when we all had to have a stir.
A giant chicken and lots of veg.
Very few presents but we did not expect them so we thought it was great when we got an apple and an orange. We all so got Chocolate money and a compedium of games made of paper that you had to cut out.
We all loved it.Then we sat around the piano and Dad played while we all sang the old songs.
Yes we might have been less well off they most kids are today but we did not know it and we did not care. :lol: :wink:
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Henry, that sounds lovely - we all used get to make a wish each when stirring the Christmas cake mix.
We used all get round the piano for carols too. :D
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Henry, that sounds lovely - we all used get to make a wish each when stirring the Christmas cake mix.
We used all get round the piano for carols too. :D
It was a typical Irish Christmas Rosemary,lots of family lots of fun and lots of love,and I loved them so much that Christmas remains very very special to me all these years later. :lol: :wink:
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Ah yes Henry, an Irish Christmas :D
Do you put a lit candle in the window to welcome travellers over the holidays?
It's an Irish tradition I really love :D
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Ah yes Henry, an Irish Christmas :D
Do you put a lit candle in the window to welcome travellers over the holidays?
It's an Irish tradition I really love :D
Yeb plus a jar was always ready for anyone who called,and they would be made most welcome.
The singing went on until my Dad was too tired to go on.
He played many musical instruments and once he was tired of one we would make him play another.
Then it was the old wind up record player with us all dancing and just having fun. We were aways sad to go to bed but by then we needed it.
We always saved some chocolate money for bedtime and boasted how much we had eaten.
Lovely great days. :lol: :wink:
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We used all get round the piano for carols too
When my father was a child during the Great Depression, the family were told they were too rich to claim National Assistance as they had a piano, so the piano got smashed up for firewood.
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Dad was a postman all of his married life, and mum didn't work, she stayed at home to look after us all, money was therefore quite scarce in our house. we didn't go on holidays or anything like that, but we did go and stay at gran and grandads council house in Aldershot for a weekend or two. I remember we had to sleep on a bare matress on the floor of an unused bedroom.
for Christmas presents, mum and dad used to save up greenshield stamps all year that they got from the local shop, and then they "spent" them on us three kids.
I remember up to the age of about 14 (I'm the youngest), my parents could never afford to heat our council house in Tolworth, so we vertually lived in one small room downstairs as that was the only room they could afford to heat.
Going to bed was murder! having to undress and wash in cold water. Brrrrr.
In the deepest mid winter, We often woke up in the morning with an actual frost on the blankets formed from the water in our breath.
But I can honestly say I had a very happy childhood, and I reckon my experiences as a kid, has made me so that i see the funny side of just about everything, I'm often told that I don't take too much too seriously, I see that as a blessing, rather than a handycap!!
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Yes, no central heating in those days!
We were lucky because there was an open fire in the living room (when we could afford coal), an electric fire in the dining room and a portable parafin heater.
Only when it was really cold (none of these mild winters then) and there was ice on the inside of the bedroom windows, was I allowed to have to the airing cupboard door slightly ajar to let some heat out into my bedroom. If I was also ill in winter, then I would be allowed the portable heater.
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I can still remember the cold lino on the bedroom floor and the outside toilet seat was so cold to sit on that I used to put my hands under my thighs as a kid to lessen the shock! :shock:
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I can still remember the cold lino on the bedroom floor
Lino! - You had lino :?:
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We had lino, but only a rectangle in the middle of the bedroom, with stained bare boards around the perimeter. Trouble was that the lino was mostly under the bed!
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I can still remember the cold lino on the bedroom floor
Lino! - You had lino :?:
Beginning to sound like the 3 Yorkshiremen. lol
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CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1940's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking .
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun.
We drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents .
We played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out any eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned
HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
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I couldn't agree more.
Here, Here.
I'm sure I've said that before at some point some where else,
I wonder if my bad memory is due to eating lead based paint? :?
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an over dose of lead gives you nightmares and the runs gwiz :lol:
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an over dose of lead gives you nightmares and the runs gwiz :lol:
that'll explain it all then...... :oops:
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an over dose of lead gives you nightmares and the runs gwiz :lol:
that'll explain it all then...... :oops:
At least you wake up screaming before you sh*t the bed :wink:
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or you s**t the bed then wake up screaming :lol:
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I wonder if my bad memory is due to eating lead based paint? :?
How can you remember eating it if that's the case?
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The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
All those things being the p**s taken out of by any chance? :lol:
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My mum used to cook us brain fritters!
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:shock:
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:shock:
Close your eyes, Rose, they are very, very nice, my mum used to say, full of phosporus, good for your brains. :lol:
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It just makes me feel icky - like when my husband tells me how his Mum used to cook pigs' tails :x
It's silly, if you are going to eat one part of an animal, then why not eat everything that's edible....
but I'm so glad I'm vegetarian :D
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You look away now!
Now you are bringing memories back, pig's tales, oh, lovely savoury jellies , very traditional for New Year's supper with trotters, ears, etc, gorgeous.
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Gobs, I read it --- ears? :shock: How do you cook an ear?
Pigs' trotters are eaten in Ireland, they're called crubeens, though I've never had them.
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I wonder if my bad memory is due to eating lead based paint? :?
How can you remember eating it if that's the case?
I don't, as such, but I DO remember chewing a lot of pencils when I was young
What were we talking about? :wink:
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When I was a kid I used to eat sugar sandwiches and if I had any "soldiers "left over from my boiled egg I used to dip them in the sugar bowl :oops:
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When I was a kid I used to eat sugar sandwiches and if I had any "soldiers "left over from my boiled egg I used to dip them in the sugar bowl :oops:
So did I :!: I thought everyone did :lol:
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My mother used to put sugar on lettuce to get me to eat it.
Then they wonder why my generation's got a mouth full of mercury.
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When I was a kid I used to eat sugar sandwiches and if I had any "soldiers "left over from my boiled egg I used to dip them in the sugar bowl :oops:
My dad used to do that too!